Category: people

“Ludwig van Beethoven died on March 26, 1827, after four months of misery on a dirty straw mattress in Vienna. What brought on that downward spiral? Lead poisoning accidentally caused by his own doctor, says a journal article….”

“Koolhaas is loved by the fashionable. He is one of those architects who receives star treatment in design magazines. Every month, Oma receives more than 1,000 applications from graduates all over the world hoping to work there. Koolhaas has received pretty much every award going. He roosts at the top of the architectural tree with the likes of Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind and Toyo Ito.”

“There were only three story collections in 35 years, but they made Grace, who died last week at 84, internationally famous. She has been read all over the world, in languages you never heard of, as a master storyteller in the great tradition: People love life more because of her writing. Why? Because no matter how old Paley characters get — especially the women — they remain susceptible to the promise that someone or something is about to round the corner and make them feel again the crazy, wild, sexy excitement of being alive.”

“Roach didn’t invent bebop, but he showed a whole new way for drummers to play a role in the new music–to do something besides just keeping time. (It would be a while longer before a bass player came along to do the same.)”

“Musicians study his solos like scripture, and many of his songs, among them ‘Maiden Voyage’ and ‘Dolphin Dance,’ have entered the bloodstream of jazz.”

Italian opera tenor Luciano Pavarotti returned home from the hospital, more than two weeks after checking in with a high fever linked to his treatment for pancreatic cancer.

“Sellars laughs as others breathe and works in boundless joy, which may be the rarest and most agreeable form of confidence. It fuels not only smaller works but also a €10-million efforts like New Crowned Hope, commissioned for Vienna as part of the celebrations last year of Mozart’s 250th birthday and just seen in London as part of the Barbican’s 25th anniversary.”

“Ms. Paley’s output was modest, just 45 stories in three volumes: “The Little Disturbances of Man” (Doubleday, 1959); “Enormous Changes at the Last Minute” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1974); and “Later the Same Day” (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1985). But she attracted a devoted following and was widely praised by critics for her pitch-perfect dialogue, which managed to be surgically spare and unimaginably rich at the same time.”

The legendary soprano sang 18 seasons at the Met. “Bampton premiered songs of Samuel Barber, and was the first American to sing Parsifal’s Kundry at the Met. Schoenberg called her voice a miracle.”

“Though slowed by age, Ray Bradbury still speaks with exuberance. Hobbled by a stroke in 1999, he now dictates his work over the phone to his daughter in Arizona, who records and transcribes it before faxing edits back.”